The rationale works like this... if you skip a dinner reservation, the restaurant loses not only the revenue from your party, but the lost money from turning other diners away as well. Some places are now asking for a credit card number over the phone or the web to lock in your reservation, and fees might hit if you cancel.

Would you be ok with this? I understand the theory here, and I don't disagree that restaurants should be able to make money on their tables every night, but I would probably be hesitant to give a credit card number over the phone when making a reservation for dinner.

But if you look at table reservations in Portland as "buying" a table for the night, people might see the issue differently. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.